Dakhla: A Growing Touristic Destination with a Diplomatic Sway

Résumé

The city of Dakhla welcomes the opening of new consulates and regularly hosts several cultural events. Recognizing Dakhla's attractiveness and popularity as a perfect tourist destination, the combination of tourism and diplomacy involves an institutional strategic planning process that strengthens Dakhla's ability to pursue a diplomatic agenda and ensure multilateral connections in the sphere of international relations.

Does Dakhla thread diplomatic networks and facilitate public diplomacy? Is Dakhla considered a "global city" like Paris, Vienna and Brussels? To what extent is Dakhla a "middle power" (Van Ham, 2010)? The result of the analysis demonstrated the authentic tourist aspect of Dakhla with a political flavor. This double branding has allowed the city to benefit from a strategic positioning in the international sphere. The benchmarking with other cities has allowed to identify common characteristics and to detect some future perspectives.